Windward Islands Farmers’ Association Winfa has signed a contract to sell bananas directly to one single marketing company, Wibdeco.
The move gives the several thousand individual growers on Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia, Dominica and Grenada even more control over their own fruit. This new contract means that the intermediary companies in Dominica and St Lucia and the parastatal Banana Growers’ Association in St Vincent cease their involvement in the industry.
Alistair Smith of UK pressure group Banana Link said: “For the first time in the history of the industry, it is the farmers, through their national fair trade organisations, who now sell directly to an island-wide company that markets all bananas in the UK.”
Wibdeco is still 50 per cent owned by the four governments, while the other 50 per cent is intended to be owned by the growers themselves, said Smith. More than 90 per cent of the industry in the Windward Islands is now Fairtrade certified.
At a local level in St Vincent, St Lucia and Dominica, growers are organised into nearly 50 local growers’ groups. It is these groups that decide on how the Fairtrade premium from each box is spent to improve the social, economic and environmental situation in their communities.
“With this move, the farmers are now taking more control of their own destiny,” said Smith. “When the company was bought out from Geest, there was always the formal intention for the producers to own the other 50 per cent of the company. Now this has happened, and not just on paper. To move from ownership from a British company, Geest, to an industry that is wholly Fairtrade in such a short space of time, is an achievement.”
Smith credited UK consumers with creating the demand for Fairtrade. “Yes, Sainsbury’s made the commitment to sell 100 per cent Fairtrade bananas, but I think it is more down to UK consumers, and it would be good news if all the other retailers would follow suit.”
